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M-3 Intergalactic Heavy Transport
Background At 3,000 meters in length, the M-3 Intergalactic Heavy Transport is a huge bulk freighter. While primarily a civilian freighter, the M-3 is frequently used by the Jod Military Forces through contracts with CargoCorp Interplanetary Business Group. In those contracts, CargoCorp Interplanetary Business Group (CIB) retains the defenses and security measures that the civilian model would retain, while the Kingdom's Navy provides the escort muscle and keeps a platoon detachment of King's Army's Infantrymen and a small 3-man detachment of 1 liaisons officer & 2 Navy Intelligence Force officers aboard the M-3 (47 personnel). By allowing CIB to operate the M-3, this saves the JMF vast amounts of credits & resources. A handful of militarized versions are directly operated by the Kingdom's Navy, but these are rare. A City in Space A virtual city in space, M-3's are a constantly working factory of work vehicles, personnel, & moving cargo. Ship captains receive bonuses & good work reviews based on how much cargo they can move throughout Companion Cresh in a year. The more cargo moved from place to place, the more profit made for the company. The more profit for the company, the more profit for the ship captain. M-3 ship captains are as much business mercenaries and business dealers as anyone, cutting deals (legally or illegally) with clients to get their goods to their spot first. For a little under-the-table credits or benefits. The M-3 will oftentimes travel destination to destination, dropping off and receiving cargo on a yearly run. Little---if any---time is spent at space ports during this year, as employees are expected to load and unload cargo as quickly as possible, with labor droids helping. Oftentimes, employees will be moving cargo & goods from one container to another container via interior conveyor belts, as to make room for the next shipment. Or even re-configuring an existing cargo container to fit more inside of it. While employees enjoy rather lucrative paychecks for their full year of work---6 days a week, out of 7 days, with 10 hour work days---oftentimes, the long periods of isolation & constant work in deep space can drive many people crazy. Turnover rates are very high in M-3's, with some employees quitting mid voyage and being dropped off at the nearest spaceport with their last paycheck in hand. Some employees do what's called the "Triple Run," which is 3 years of work on an M-3 back-to-back-to-back. Loaded with money to stuff away into savings or to go to college, most resign soon after and pursue other career fields. The Triple Run allows employees to cash out the company's bonus program of an extra 50% of their yearly full paycheck added on as a bonus, which requires an employee to do at least 2 year long runs on a M-3 in 2 1/2 years. As long as an employee does a single year run spaced 6 months between each year with the company thereafter, they receive a 25% increase in pay per hour for the rest of their employment with the company whenever on an M-3, plus an additional 50% of their full paycheck every time they do two yearly runs back-to-back. The bonus program is a way for the company to keep vested and knowledgeable employees staffed on M-3's and move said employees up the ladder as well into officer positions. Modular Containers The 18 different containers (9 each on port & starboard, each container holding 55,555.5 metric tons each) can be individually reconfigured per the need at hand, with all of them able to store multiple goods of various types into one container. As such, M-3's can carry any number and various types of bulk goods, from solids to liquids & gases, and vehicles & parts. It is very common for civilian & military shipments to be combined into one, although military goods mixed in with civilian goods require both a military escort and hazard pay for the civilian employees. Defenses Because of their often large value worth of cargo, M-3's are encased in alusteel armor, equipped with powerful deflector shields (800 SBD), defended by 100 point-defense quad laser cannons, have their own 3 squadrons of Jump Fighter Mk 4's operated by CIB (the starfighters have a gray and orange color scheme matching the M-3, with the CIB logo on each wing, both dorsal & ventral), and both 539 CargoCorp Security Guards & 100 CargoCorp Defense Troopers. Additionally, the ships are equipped with powerful communication & sensor arrays, a standard hyperdrive, and enough fuel to travel the entire boarder of the Kingdom of Jod 20 times over. Lastly, M-3's come stocked with an assortment of shuttles & transports to help move cargo & personnel between the ship and other locations. Despite powerful defenses, the 1,000,000 metric tons of cargo hardly travels alone, as M-3's often travel in larger convoys for mutual protection. Additionally, M-3's are constantly monitored & travel routes tracked by the Military Intelligence Corps because of their high value content (this includes ships both in use by the JMF and ones used for private business). For pirates or mercenaries to capture a M-3 fully loaded is called the "Retirement Run," as it is very possible to buy a small moon with the amount of stolen goods in exchange. Category:Kingdom of Jod